After our time in the Preveza area with Austin’s extended family, Austin, Kayla (Austin’s cousin), and I planned to head to Egypt for a couple of weeks all together. We spent about 24 hours in Athens prior to flying to Cairo. As expected, the ruins were absolutely stunning. We loved walking around knowing that so many incredible people for thousands of years walked the same paths we were walking. I loved to close my eyes and imagine what each location would have been like when it was in use. We visited the Acropolis and other ruins that were sprinkled throughout the city.

My favorite place we visited was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus theater (second photo). The theater sits about 6,000 people! I sat and multiplied out how many people I thought could sit there and got to 5,000 so I was off a bit but still amazed with how many people could fit in a small/deceiving (to the eye) space. The stone stairs and seats were polished and smooth stone (marble, I believe). The wall with some of the stone arches was much larger in real life but made it easy to build the wall in your imagination to see what the full wall was like. Back in the day, there was a wooden structure that was a roof over the theater but that unfortunately burned down. The theater’s original purpose was for lectures and some musical performances. Can you imagine listening to a lecture there!? Wow- Now the theater is use for viewing and they also host concerts during summer there!